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The 2nd Sunday in Advent
Jesus, The Bread of Life
December 6, 2009

TEXT: NKJ John 6:31 "Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' “32 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My
Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." 35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36 "But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." 41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven."
 
Today we look at Jesus the Christ as the Bread of Life—this text comes the day after Jesus fed the 5000—Jesus is now on the other side of the lake and the crowd followed Him—and in this portion of our text we have the crowd of Jews telling Jesus how great the God of their fathers was—He gave them manna to sustain them when they wandered in the desert—as we remember—manna was the bread God delivered to the camp of the Israelites day after day—they ate manna for the entire 40 years in the wilderness
 
NKJ Exodus 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
 
This Bread from heaven did not stop until the children of Israel crossed the River Jordan and ate the produce of the land of Canaan—Jesus points out to the Jews that Moses and their fathers ate the bread—but the bread was of God—then He points out that He is the true Bread of Heaven—coming from heaven to this earth for them—God sent the manna to give life to the Israelites—God’s chosen people—now God sends the gift that gives everlasting life to all believers—heaven itself—how great is that—we can’t even describe it—the manna fed only the Jews for a few years—the Bread of Life—the Christ sent by God for us feeds our souls for all eternity
 
Jesus is teaching the Jews about how they misunderstood or misrepresented the Old Testament—let’s examine what the Jews knew about bread from the Old Testament—there were two kinds of bread mentioned in the celebration of the feasts of the Jews—leavened and unleavened—the unleavened bread was the bread of Passover—and Passover was the feast of remembrance established by God for all time
 
NKJ Leviticus 23:5 'On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD's Passover. 6 'And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
 
During the Passover—leaven was strictly forbidden—leaven was symbolic of sin—there shall be no sin amongst God’s people—they shall obey God and reject the ways of the world
 
NKJ Exodus 12:14 'So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. 15 'Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
 
Scripture repeats the harsh warning—shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel
 
NKJ Exodus 12:17 'So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 'For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 'You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.' "
 
This was the feast established by God to remember the salvation of God’s people—rescued from destruction by the Egyptian Army by God—God’s people were saved—and the people forever must eat unleavened bread during the feast of remembrance—they were to get all yeast out of their homes—and out of their lives—but what is the significance of the leaven or yeast?
 
NKJ 1 Corinthians 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
 
Yeast—or leaven—symbolizes sin—the blood of the Passover Lamb was sacrificed to save God’s Old Testament people in the land of Egypt—the Israelites were instructed to paint the blood of the Passover Lamb on the doorpost of their houses to show that they were God’s people—Paul here speaks of God sending Christ—our Passover Lamb—to save us—and we must get the yeast of sin out of our lives—just as God instructed His Old Testament people to get leaven out of their lives—and just as the blood of the lamb on the doorpost saved God’s people in the Old Testament—the blood of Christ saves us people of God today
 
Another of the great Old Testament feasts ordered by God was the Feast of Pentecost—this feast celebrates the remembrance of the giving of the Law on the mountain—when Moses met with God—and soon after spoke with all of the nation of Israel from that mountain—God chose Israel to be His people—hear these words He spoke to Moses
 
NKJ Exodus 19:5 'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 'And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel."
 
Then God gave Moses the 10 Commandments—the Feast to remember this incident in Jewish history is established in Scripture
 
NKJ Leviticus 23:15 ' And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 'Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD. 17 'You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD.
 
This is called the Feast of the harvest—the harvest of souls—which began with Adam—and continues until the Judgment Day—God tells His people to offer a wave offering—here the priest would hold the offering above his head and wave it before God—the offering was then for the consumption of the priests—notice that the wave offering would be two loaves—that in itself is significant—the number two in Scripture is symbolic in itself—two represents testimony or witness—it took two witnesses to condemn a man to death
 
Look at some of the examples of the testimony of two
 
We have two or three witnesses to testify against—or attempt to correct an errant brother
 
NKJ Deuteronomy 19:15 " One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.
 
NKJ Matthew 18:19 "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
 
The Ten Commandments were written on two tablets
 
NKJ Exodus 31:18 And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
 
The Ten Commandments were reduced to two by Jesus
 
NKJ Matthew 22:34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' 38 "This is the first and great commandment. 39 "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
 
The Holy Bible is assembled from two testaments—the Old Testament and the New Testament
 
Returning to the wave offering of two loaves—it is said that these two loaves represent the congregation of the Jews who believe in the Messiah and the congregation of the Gentile believers—with this Scriptural base established to present what the Jews understood—or should have understood about bread in God’s word—we proceed with our text
 
TEXT: NKJ John 6:33 "For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
 
Jesus is that bread of God—He is the Christ—He is the giver of eternal life—He is the Passover Lamb sacrificed for the salvation of our souls—and that is the message He is trying to make understood to the Jews who question Him
 
TEXT:  NKJ John 6:34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." 35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36 "But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
 
Jesus presents the truth—He offers salvation and everlasting life to those who believe—but these Jews do not believe
 
TEXT: NKJ John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
 
Again—we must remind ourselves that these Jews had the Old Testament—they knew the will of God—the entire Old Testament screams of His coming—yet they denied His existence—but Jesus is speaking beyond those in His immediate presence—He is speaking to all men through all time—from then until the end times—just as the manna came down from God to save the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for those 40 years—Jesus came down from God in heaven to save God’s chosen people for all eternity—the believers will be saved—they will be saved by the Bread of Life—they will be chosen by God—and they will believe by the power of the Holy Spirit
 
NKJ 1 Corinthians 12:3 ... no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
 
TEXT: NKJ John 6:40 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." 41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven."
 
As we know—the Jews continued to find fault with Jesus—and eventually they executed Him by the hands of the Romans—we know today that Jesus is the Bread of Life—thank God for His sending of the Holy Spirit that you know this truth—it is by His grace that you are saved—because by His grace—and by His love for us—God sent His Son to die for us—that we might be saved
 
As we proceed toward Christmas Day—remember our Savior Jesus Christ not as a Babe in a manger—but as the One who came—the one who lived His life in perfection—the one who defeated the Law on our behalf— the one who stands in heaven as our Mediator—that we might all come to glory in heaven
 
NKJ 1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
 
ALL GLORY BE TO GOD!